Art Trap Productions

The King's Demons

Sometimes a reassesment yields no differences from when you first viewed a story. This one is one of those times. Part one is fair enough. It sets up the situation admirably, the castle looks great, the joust exciting enough, the cold looks cold, and the TARDIS arrival is funny...right in the middle of the joust.

Tegan and the Doctor seem to be jousting again but this time it seems fun and it also seems that these two would have been better on their own without being saddled with Turlough...and now the worst companion up to now, Kamelion. There's so many things wrong with Kamelion as a companion, I can't even begin to list them.

Tegan's back to complaining and wanting to get back to the TARDIS but who can blame her? It looks positively cold in this.

This is one time the Master's disguise...well, isn't. Except for the first three minutes or so when his face is not to us, we can't tell he's the Master but once the face is fully seen and he's fully heard...there's no denying that this is the Master. And we've all seen him enough to know it is his voice and his face and his mannerisms. So no surprise at the cliffhanger. The dinner is interesting, King John's song creepy (it's really Kamelion) and the sword fight is just okay, not spectacular as it could have been (as Pertwee's/Master sword fight was in THE SEA DEVILS). Why the others in the court accepted King John's demons after he calls them demons is beyond me. I would have thought they would have been stoned. Then there's the back and forth of it all. Why would Kamelion keep the Doctor and Tegan in his good graces as King John?

In one unforunate scene in the dungeon they are taking out the Iron Maiden (the Master's TARDIS) and a second later as they pan back to the dungeon, it's there again! Unless there are two of them? The lord of the castle (forgot his name) and his son seem not to know what to do. The lord first accuses the Doctor, thanks him for saving his son, accuses him again...of murdering his cousin Sir Jeffry...

Oh, and at the end of part one the Master changes into the Master from his disguise of Sir Gilles or whatever he's called...and in full view of everyone. Laughing. They had to have seen that the evil Gilles became this Master...yet the lord, the son, and the wife all help the Master and believe him that the Doctor is the evil one!? WTF?

On top of that there's Turlough's daring do and it's not really well done. Glad he tried though.

Oh, and Tegan's back to her annoying whining self---witness the last scene where she's pouting and then demanding to be taken to the Eye of Orion. IT's not even funny that Turloug and the Doctor are talking about the Eye, perhaps teasing her or trying to make her stay, we don't really know which and frankly I didn't care which. I just wanted Turlough, Kam, and Tegan to shut up. Earlier, she tried moving the TARDIS, this time with good effect, distracting the gang in the basement long enough for the Doctor to drag Kamelion into the TARDIS and for Turlough to stage a get away, too. Then...the TARDIS just leaves...the Master laughs and then he leaves, too. Huh?

I'm with Tegan in not wanting Kamelion on board. He's a terrible, unpersonable character with not enough mobility or originality to keep as a main character and above that she's right: he might still be under control of the Master. And I thnk he might be so again this Doctor is wrong. One funny part is when someone asks Turlough if he can see Kamelion, as Kam is looking like Tegan. Turlough says, "Yes unforunately." Why Kam turned into Tegan in the first place is unknown...

There's plenty more bad about this but check out ABOUT TIME for that. I can't say part two was entertaining as it wasn't. Part one was. Part two wasn't awful to watch or unbearable, just kind of there. It's not very good even as a runaround story cause almost no one runs around. The Doc and the Master throw jibes at each other. The Doctor, I think, did something to the Master's TARDIS and has the TCE in HIS Tardis. The mind duel is sometimes hard to watch because it's hard on the eyes and it's not terribly convincing or exciting.

Davison is pretty good though through all this nonsense. He's somehow become the Doctor finally. Every word he says now can be believed...almost. There is still the chance that he could be wrong as with Kamelion...but somehow Davison almost makes all the flakiness of this story work. Almost.

So this is not a good story. A fair first part say 6/10 I guess with a firm 2/10 for part two or maybe 3/10...not a good Master story either.